CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Quietly yesterday, with loved ones by his side, Earl Woods died in the same modest, middle-class house in Orange County, Calif., where he raised his son, Tiger, to become the worldwide icon he’s grown into as a golfer and as a man.

He was 74 years old – “two over par,” as Tiger was fond of saying.

The father left this earth, but his powerful presence will forever live inside of his son.

The first and favorite thoughts among the many that flooded my mind about Earl Woods when I heard the sad news of his death was that he was the singular figure in Team Tiger who wasn’t afraid to let people like me inside his son’s world.

Sometimes, Earl’s candor was slightly to Tiger’s chagrin. Tiger could break up with girlfriends and fire caddies and agents for talking too much, but he would never fire his father.

I’ll never forget speaking to Earl about a week before the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage for a story I was working on. It will forever remain one of my favorite interviews ever, bringing tears to my eyes while we spoke.

Earl related a wonderful story about playing Bethpage in the ’70s when he was stationed in the Army.

“I was 42 and had been playing golf for three weeks and I got cocky and I drove all the way from Brooklyn to Bethpage,” Earl recalled with that gravelly voice of his. “That course just destroyed me. It was so bad, I lost so many balls, got so frustrated, I just laid down underneath a tree and listened to the birds – during the round.

“I always finish what I start so I got up and finished. When it was over, I was so beat up I went to a bar and said to the bartender, ‘Give me a Heineken beer.’ I don’t even drink beer, but I sat there and drank that beer and cried in my soup.”

I then asked him if he planned to give Tiger any advice about the course. “I said, ‘It kicked my ass. Beware. It might kick yours, too,’ ” he said.

When that Open was over and Tiger was champion, there was oddly no sign of Earl at the 18th green to give Tiger one of those emotional bear hugs.

I found out from someone that Earl had been staying at a nearby hotel on Long Island all week but never once came to the course. I called him at the hotel while the celebrations were still taking place at Bethpage and he said, “When I see him I’ll say, ‘I’m proud of you and I love you.’ That’s all that’s necessary. And he’ll say, ‘Happy Father’s Day. This one’s for you.’ ”

Tiger will win many more majors before he’s finished and Earl will be a part of every last one of them. To understand the uncanny power of Earl Woods is to understand that, in death, he might make his son even stronger – if that’s humanly possible.